I hadn't been out in nearly a month and my weekend was occupied, so I was looking to take a day off and hit a peak. I contacted Zach and he was in. We decided to go to the Antares Peak area in the southern Pioneers and bag some 10,000' peaks.

We left at a reasonable 6:20am, arriving at the trailhead exactly 3 hours later. After getting boots on, packs loaded, and sinking the beer in the creek; we were ready to go.

We followed a ATV/mining road up Garfield Canyon. Until about 7400', the road crosses the creek numerous times and is hard to follow. At 7400' the road switchbacks and stays above the creek. It then takes a straight shot towards a mining building at 7900'. Here we traversed over to the road zig-zags up the south ridge of Antares Peak (Peak 10651). We followed the road to nearly 9000', then followed the creek a bit (finding some really cool mining equipment). Eventually we hit a saddle on the south ridge at just under 10,000'.

From the saddle, we had another 300 feet of grassy terrain before encountering all rock the rest of the way to the summit. While fairly large boulders, this rock was not stable. Boulders I felt would hold my weight slid out from under me on numerous occassions. Eventually we overcame this section and walked on a neat knife-edge ridge to the top.

The top of Antares has great views of the Pioneer Crest all the way from Paymaster Peak to Big Black Dome. The view of Borah is suprisingly nice as well. After checking out and signing into the register, we headed for our next obstacle of the day, Peak 10650 (Pincer Peak).

The route to Pincer looked spicy. We first had to drop to a 10,100' saddle. This drop was steep, but we were able to do it safely. Looking back up at the route we had just came down shocked both of us, as it looked very steep from below. No at the saddle, we face the crux of the route over the next 150'. I led us up this solid class 3 section. While steep, with lots of climbing, the route had great holds and great rock. I just stuck to the ridge top and we eventually popped out on easier slopes. From 10,250' to the top, we were on easy terrain with great footing.

The top of Pincer had great views! Muldoon Canyon and other basins below the peak were very scenic! We found a summit register, which is where we found Rick Baugher's name for the peak.

Zach and I had considered doing a third peak on this trip, Scorpion Peak, which attached to the ridge from Pincer. However, we were moving slow and very low on water, so we decided Scorpion could wait another day.

It was a great day in the mountains... clear weather, scenic peaks, and a great partner.

From Carey, Idaho we took a left at the north end of town to a signed road to Little Wood Reservoir. We drove past the reservoir. About 1.5 miles after the reservoir, the road heads right. The road is signed in several spots, just always head for Garfield Ranger Station and always stay on the most traveled road.

After you see the signs for Copper Creek and Payne Creek you are getting close to the turnoff for Garfield Canyon. The Garfield Canyon road is on the right. Follow the road 3/4ths of a mile Until it forks at 7000' (there is a yellow sign here). The left fork drops into Garfield Canyon. We followed this fork a bit, but after only a 1/2 mile we were blocked by downfall. Probably just best to park at the sign.

We followed Garfield Canyon up to the base of the south ridge of Antares. We then followed the mining roads to about 8800' on Antares before leaving the roads. We basically ascended to a 10000' saddle on the south ridge of Antares. We then followed the ridge to the summit.

For Pincer Peak, we descended the east ridge of Antares and then ascended the west ridge of Pincer.